Remembrance Day Sermon

Sermon Preached in Blarney Church on 11th November 2018 on the 100th Anniversary of the Armistice.


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May the words of My mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be now and always be acceptable in thy sight O Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen

Today I particularly welcome along those who have come to this church to especially remember members of their family / those connected with them in some way who died during WWI.

We’re commemorating a war that saw so many from this land and these islands march over to battlefields in foreign lands and encounter unimaginable suffering, scenes of the most horrific slaughter and witness the most incredible display of mans inhumanity to man.

The names we read out earlier are relatives of ours or linked to us in some way - people who for various reasons found themselves on  foreign battlefields. We remember them, we remember those who are not named as well because to forget them is to forget the sacrifice of life they made and also to forget the horrors of war they witnessed and to ensure that those lessons not be forgotten by any generation yet to come.

Messy is a word I’m using more and more about life, pastoral issues and certainly the politics of the world… and certainly the history of these islands are messy to say the least. A couple of weeks ago I attended the Blarney and District Historical Society for a lecture entitled Blarney 1918 which talked about this area 100 years ago - the competing political ideologies, the messy reasons for people to sign up and go off to war - whether it be for money, to feed themselves and their families, for adventure, to further the cause of irish nationalism, to support the British forces … to name but a few.

What we do know is without this war - History of this nation and europe would be different, and the world we know today would be unrecognisable.

These brave men who marched are remembered today - with gratitude for their service and their sacrifice

When we look around Ireland in 2018 we see these men some of whom are named on monuments and others who are not - we are realising that they do need to be remembered - there seems to be a general maturing of attitudes - this needs to be encouraged - we need to be careful about this remembering  … that we do not forget the lessons that history teaches us - the importance that no one should be ‘airbrushed out of the history books’.

In remembering we are not glorifying war - not at all! … in commemorating we are not celebrating - that cannot be done  and should never be done.

In our village we do remember … and we will remember those in previous generations who died.

When we turn as we must to scripture - The Gospel reading today ends with Jesus’ command

Love each other

In the Epistle reading … Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus

My appeal is simple today - actually probably the simplest message of all

The human heart … is at the heart of all decisions - personally, politically, nationally, internationally and when we scale decisions up into the corridors of power and down to individual conversations at home or at work - where is love?

This day 100 years ago peace was achieved … after around 17 million people (Military & Civilian) were killed

Peace at what cost? …

This cannot be allowed to happen again … of course we know it did happen again - I was struck that on Friday Night on BBC News they were mentioning that it was 80 since Jews were attacked in Germany …again violence and inhumanity to fellow humans

but what about in our day?

We do know that peace is a longing for us all … we do need to work for it. We do know that there are those from this land today who are trying to work for peace - to stand in the gap between foes

We have today peace keeping forces in various parts of the world serving with the UN

Currently the Defence Forces  of Ireland are involved in a number of missions throughout the world involving approximately one hundred Personnel from all branches.  This number will be increased to include the 440 personnel who will be involved with the new mission to Lebanon which was confirmed by Minister for Defence.

We pray for our leaders, for those in the corridors of power
but we also work for peace in our homes, our families, our workplaces, wherever we find ourselves

Where there are those who stand in the gap … to defend our peace we give thanks

Where there are those who negotiate peace … we pray for wisdom

Where there are those who try to bring reconciliation … we pray for courage.

This is a day for remembrance but it is also a day to re-commit ourselves to the pursuit for peace and justice in our world. Later in the service we will have an opportunity to do just that.

For each of us in our own lives we have opportunities day and daily to bring an end to hatred and division - to embark on a journey of reconciliation - its difficult but God does give us the resources to love one another as he loves us.

as we sit here this morning I wonder as we commemorate a war which none of us remember first hand - are there bits of our history - our family, the community to which we belong that need reconciled.

Let’s remember that although there are no World Wars there are still those who are protecting us from those who would do us harm.

And there are those who we might not take up a weapon against but whom we need to love as difficult as that may be.

Reconcilliation may not be possible but we might have to reach out an olive branch to by what we say or by our actions.

Let’s Pray.